Monday, March 19, 2007 Rama: Of pride, pugs and pistols By Karlon N. Rama Stage Five
THE real boxing fan in the house is my mother. I don’t think she’s ever seen a match in person but, even this close to 70, she’s as rabid a boxing fan as last rounder Jingo Quijano.
If it’s about the sweet science and aired on television, she’ll watch it, minding not if it’s a live feed, a delayed telecast, or a rerun of those ‘60s and ‘70s-era bouts between the legends.
She has seen all of Manny Pacquiao’s bouts, at least all those aired on television. And she knew even before the pundits did that the PacMan was going to be the Next Big Thing, discerning from the few dozens of the Gen San pug’s matches since the mid ‘90s via Blow by Blow – a weekly boxing show that featured provincial fights.
I guess I don’t have to say that peeling her off the teevee monitor during a boxing match is about as easy as making this city politico admit to amassing a huge stash of dirty cash by engineering the purchase of scandalously overpriced decorative lampposts and streetlamps for his city prior to the Asean Summit.
Thus it was a foregone conclusion that she watched Gerry Peñalosa tangle with Daniel Ponce de Leon over ABS-CBN yesterday morning. Hell, she was up with anxious anticipation since dawn. And as cameras, in sync with production’s music bed, rolled to catch Peñalosa walking to the ring, I asked why she was so hot about an undercard. Because it was a Filipino in the ring, was all she said.
It’s about pride.
The scorecards say we didn’t win that fight and I don’t wish to bore you with a cold autopsy. All I’ll say is that, for what it’s worth, my wise yet aging mother found it a fight that Peñalosa, and therefore the entire Filipino nation, can be truly proud of.
It’s all about pride, indeed.
Hands of steel. Leaving off from fists of stone, Sean Ragay, the teenage son of Cebuano lawyer Efren Ragay, captured top honors in the on-going 2007 USA Shooting Junior Olympic National Championships, held in Colorado this year, bagging the grand prize in the Free Pistol event.
A dispatch from Najasila Campbell at the USA Shooting pressroom had Sean entering the finals, held last March 13, with 522 points a full six points ahead of his closest contender, Cody Owsley of Kansas. He ultimately finished with 607.9 for the gold. As soon as the games close on the 24th, Sean will begin training for the Rapid Fire championships in Plzen, the Czech Republic this June.
‘Torney Efren, per our last email, month, said Sean will also be competing next month to qualify for the Pan American Games and hopefully win a quota and sport for the Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Sean is in the US National Development Team, the government funded training pool for athletes eyed for entry to the US team for the Olympics. Free Pistol is one of the hardest Olympic shooting events.
In this event, a competitor has an hour and forty-five minutes to fire 60 shots at a 10.5x12-inch target paper with a four-inch nine-ring set 50 meters away. At that distance, the scoring ring will look no bigger than a thumbtack.
There are few restrictions on the pistol used. It has to be a .22 rimfire pistol with open sights. The trip may not make contact with the hand beyond the wrist. There aren’t any restrictions as to the barrel length, sight radius, or trigger weight.
With fewer restrictions, winning or losing comes only by way of skill and concentration.
Annual awards. The Sportswriters Association of Cebu (SAC) will hold their yearly awards night on the 13th of next month, if all goes well. It’s a very noble cause – recognizing, beyond the published story, Cebuano athletes who, by their labors and sacrifice, have helped made us prouder of our selves through their achievements.
The SAC had previously given recognition to two athletes from the shooting sport – Dino Cinco and Lito Ladroma.
Dino was given his in 2004, for winning a string of matches organized by the Philippine Practical shooting Association that year. Lito got given his in 2005, for his entry into the National Team that competed in the World Shoot XIV in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
The organization didn’t have an honoree for shooting in 2006 but, this year, I’ve recommended via board member Mike Limpag an athlete I believe firmly deserves recognition for, against tough odds and naysayers, winning in an international shooting competition held in Singapore last year.
I will not reveal his name as of yet, pending word from the SAC. I am not a member of the organization so my endorsement is only as good as 'Bai Mike's lobbying skills.
